ISLAMABAD – Opposition parties on Tuesday called their walkout from parliament during the president’s address to the joint sitting “a positive achievement that could bear fruit in future”, however, they did not directly hit out at President Asif Ali Zardari’s speech.
Talking to Pakistan Today after his party’s walkout, PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain pointed out that his party legislators had walked out to protest the skyrocketing prices, unabated drone attacks, hasty and covert release of US spy Raymond Davis and other issues of governance. Shujaat said his party had shared its plan of walkout four days ago.
“We have strong reservations over the government’s policies and we have expressed the same today by refusing to attend the session,” he said, adding that the PML-N had walked out after failing to strike a covert deal with the government. JUI-F chief Fazlur Rehman called the joint walkout an achievement.
“The government’s performance is hopeless and the rulers only want to complete the five-year term. If they want to do so, they would have to act in accordance with the public’s aspirations,” he said. Fazl said the government’s haste to get Davis released and its inaction on Dr Afiya Siddiqui case reflected the government’s indifference to public aspirations.
To a query, Fazl said no one wanted to derail the democratic system, adding that the opposition’s unity was a welcome sign, while the government’s performance was pitiful. MQM Parliamentary Leader Dr Farooq Sattar said President Asif Ali Zardari should live up to the promises which he had made in his speech. He asked to take action against criminals in Karachi to restore peace in the city, because mere lip service would not work in future.
“Now there is time that actions should speak louder than words, as mere lip service will not work in the future. We hope that the president’s promise made with the nation in his address will be fulfilled and the government will take action against criminals,” he said. PTI Chairman Imran Khan said the president addressed the joint session in a language alien to the people at large.
“May be the president was addressing his masters on whose crutches he continues to remain in power. The people are desperate for a change in the policy on the war on terror which has destroyed our internal security and our economy, while the president announced that the war on terror would last for an indefinite period,” he said.
He said at a time when national sovereignty and honor was put to shame by the PPP and the PML-N governments in the Davis fiasco, the president was advocating continuing the slave-master relationship with the US.
